MartyGrass Posted January 23, 2022 Posted January 23, 2022 Eight long years ago I shipped a Heritage Eagle with a spruce top to a HOC member. It was my first shipping disaster. I had the guitar for about a couple of months and didn't bond. I put it on HOC. I guy in Louisiana or Alabama bought it. I knew he never had an archtop before and had talked to him about full sized archtops vs. his current solid body. He got the guitar. We communicated by phone for several days. He eventually decided he didn't want an archtop. He returned the guitar and I refunded the money. Another member wanted it. I sent it to Atlanta, as I recall. It arrived at the guy's office. The box was damaged and the neck was destroyed. FedEx came to his office, took pictures, returned the guitar to me, and paid for the damage. There were a lot of good parts, including all the hardware and the body. One of the HOC members got all of that and the case for about $400. He was smarter than me. He took it to Aaron Cowles, a true master luthier who did the tap tuning and some other high end work at Heritage. Aaron restored the guitar and likely made it much better. I retrieved a photo of Aaron with his wife from the day the guitar was presented back. May he rest in peace. His wife is still around, and I see her at Aaron's old shop that Aaron's and her son now runs. The Heritage Eagle is a good instrument and a great value.
MartyGrass Posted January 23, 2022 Author Posted January 23, 2022 Here is a H-575 that Aaron renecked about the same time. I believe the original was a mahogany neck.
MartyGrass Posted January 23, 2022 Author Posted January 23, 2022 One of the clues that it is renecked is that the tuners are straight. Heritage had problems with that in many of their pieces back then.
skydog52 Posted January 23, 2022 Posted January 23, 2022 22 minutes ago, MartyGrass said: Here is a H-575 that Aaron renecked about the same time. I believe the original was a mahogany neck. Aaron was a Great Guy. He had some great stories. That H-575 is over the top!
bolero Posted January 26, 2022 Posted January 26, 2022 RIP His work lives on! Excellent stories, thanks for them and the pics!
MartyGrass Posted January 26, 2022 Author Posted January 26, 2022 Aaron's son Steve runs the store now. He builds guitars and repairs them. His prices are very good. Steve began working on guitars as a boy. He is a lot like his dad in many ways and was trained by him. One difference though is Aaron kept a .380 pistol nearby. Steve is a little more serious with his .357 magnum. Steve has done some work for me and always invites me in to watch while he narrates, as Aaron did. Steve filed a bunch of frets for me on a H-150. He's very fast. He told me that he was taught to listen to the right sonic pitch of the file movement. That's the speed of motion to maintain, just like a precision machine. The eyes guide the file. I will be providing temporary harbor to the H-575 shown above in a few weeks as a loaner. I'll get a report out then with some photos.
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